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MEMOIR 



OF 



SAMUEL ELIOT. LL.D. 



HKXRY W. HAYNES. 





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MEMOIR 



OF 




SAMUEL ELIOT, LL.D. 



BY 

HEXRY W. HAYNES. 



[Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical 
Society, March, 1900.] 



CAMBRIDGE: 
JOHN WILSON AND SOX. 

(Jlnfoersitg \5xt$5. 
1900. 



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MEMOI E. 



Samuel Eliot was born in Boston, December 22, 1821, 
the son of William Havard and Margaret (Bradford) Eliot.' 
His paternal grandfather, for whom he was named, was the 
founder of the Eliot professorship of Greek Literature at 
Harvard College, and his maternal grandfather was Alden 
Bradford, the author of a History of Massachusetts. Mr. Eliot 
graduated at Harvard with the class of 1839. the first scholar 
in his class, and facile prineeps, according to his classmate, Dr. 
Edward Everett Hale. His oration at Commencement was 
upon " The Old Age of the Scholar," and so impressed Rev. 
Dr. Pierce that he records in his journal " he is unquestion- 
ably a remarkable youth." Colonel Thomas W. Higginson, 
who was two years after him in college, writes that he took 
the first Boylston prize for public speaking, on the dav after 
Commencement, and on the same day he was first marshal at 
the literary exercises of the <£ B K Society : " I shall never 
forget the impressiveness of the spectacle as he crossed the 
street to the church, heading in his beautiful youth the march 
of aged men between the parted files of younger ones." 

After graduating he entered the counting-room of Robert 
G. Shaw, in Boston, as it was his purpose to pursue a business 
career ; but the delicacy of his health compelled him to aban- 
don this intention after two years, and he sailed to Madeira for 
the benefit of the climate, where he passed the winter. The 
next four years were spent in travel in Europe, and upon his 
return he printed privately, in 1846, a little volume of transla- 
tions from the Spanish poet, Jose Zorilla, with an essay on his 
character. While in Rome he conceived the idea of writing the 
" History of Liberty" (as Gibbon had done in the same place 



in regard to his great work), and had made some preparatory 
studies there for this undertaking. The first fruit of these 
labors was a small volume, entitled " Passages from the History 
of Libert}-" (1847), comprised in four sections : " Early Italian 
Reformers"; "John de Wycliffe" : " The Reforms of Savona- 
rola"; "The War of the Communities in Castillo." In the 
preface he states that "their design is no further concerned 
with the incidents of individual lives than as individual li\ i 
united by these incidents to the general history of Liberty and 
Humanity. We have claims as Americans upon history, that 
it should be written anew for us, after our own principles of 
thought and action." This first little volume displays much of 
that charm of scholarly culture which characterized his manner 
productions. The idea that history might profitably be writ- 
ten anew for the special benefit of Americans was the dream of 
youthful enthusiasm, but it supplied the motive power t<> his 
subsequent labors. Two years later (1840), the first instal- 
ment of his contemplated " History of Liberty" appeared, in 
two handsome and substantial volumes under the title of "The 
Liberty of Rome," published in New York and London. In 
the preface he claims that "certain chapters in history, 
cially in ancient history, should be rewritten,'' and he there- 
upon lays down the proposition that liberty is nut to be j 
merely " according to the government of the people, but rather 
and chiefly according to the use they had made of their 
liberties." What was ever the guiding principle of his life, 
his strong religious faith, shines forth pre-eminently as the 
mainspring of his efforts. "History," he Bays, "is given us 
by God, but that it be made of any efficacy it must not only 
influence us in regard to the past, but console us with regard 
to the future. ... It is only through the Bympathy for all 
humanity which Christianity commands, and the faith in 
every work of God which Christianity sanctions, that w 
comprehend the particular events or the general character of 
history. I have endeavored to represent the history of antiq- 
uity, as that of a period over which Providence was continu- 
ously watchful, as over our own." How vast was the scheme 
he had drawn out for subsequent execution appears from the 
statement that "the present work is intended as one of a 
series, which I hope, with God's blessing, to complete in my 

lifetime. Its successors, relating to the -Liberty of the Early 



Christian Ages,' and the ' Liberty of the Middle Ages,' will, 
if ever they be written, bring down the ; History of Liberty,' 
to the Reformation. I propose to make the ' Liberty of Eng- 
land' the subject of a work by itself, in which the consti- 
tution and progressive freedom of the nation shall be traced 
from its origin to its maturity. Further volumes may follow 
upon the ' Liberty of Europe since the Reformation," and 
lastly upon the 4 Liberty of America.' " Here, indeed, is the 
labor of a lifetime portrayed, and it is not to be wondered at 
that a project of s«ch enormous comprehension should never 
have been carried out. The work was republished in Boston, 
in 1853, not only revised but rewritten, under the title of the 
" History of Liberty : Part I." ; " The Ancient Romans : Part 
II." ; " The Early Christians," each in two volumes. This 
was all that was ever accomplished of the giant undertaking. 
He says that " to write history acceptably to the generality of 
readers is my earnest desire. ... I write for niy fellow-men 
as well as for my fellow scholars." 

Three years later (1856), his popular " Manual of United 
States History, 1492-1850 *' appeared, which passed through 
several editions and was continued down to 1872. 

But it is evident that he never succeeded in winning the 
favor of the general public, like his contemporaries. Motley 
and Parkman. One of our number has undertaken to account 
for this in a summing up with which I am constrained to agree : 
" This unfinished history shows neither such a vivid power of 
concrete imagination as is essential to a notable historian, nor 
yet a vital command of style. In substance and in form alike 
it indicates little creative power." 

For my own part I do not regret that he early learned that 
his vocation was to be other than that of a writer of history. 
In my judgment our community has profited much more from 
the wider career which he followed so faithfully and so suc- 
cessfully all his active life, as educator and efficient worker in 
noble charities, as public-spirited citizen and promoter of 
every good and useful cause. 

Almost immediately upon his return from Europe Mr. 
Eliot began to manifest the interest in humanitarian efforts 
for ameliorating the condition of the unfortunate and the 
ignorant, which characterized all his after life. He took part, 
in 1^40. with Dr. S. G. Howe and other philanthropists in 



organizing an experimental school for idiotic ami feeble-minded 
children. At about the same time he personally instructed 
classes of young working-men. 

In 1853 he married Emily Marshall Otis, daughter of Wil- 
liam Foster and Emily (Marshall) Otis, of Boston, and took up 
his residence in Brookline, where he remained until he mm 
called to the service of Trinity College, in Hart lord. Connec- 
ticut, in the summer of 1856. His inaugural address, si 
Brownell Professor of History and Political Science, on "The 
Scholar of the Past and the Scholar of tin- Present," was a 
brilliant study of the contrast between the lives of Cicero and 
Abelard, and that of Pr. Arnold, of Rugby, who is held up as 
the Scholar of the Present, no longer the Statesman, or the 
Schoolman, but the Christian, — the type of scholar whom 
the age requires. Nowhere does he find " a surer gate through 
which to enter into such a life than that opened for tin- in- 
dents of this college." This high estimation in which he held 
Dr. Arnold as a teacher was nobly portrayed in an extended 
notice of his life-work, contributed to the "American Journal 
of Education," March, 1858. Mr. Eliot continued to discharge 
the duties of this professorship until lu: was chosen President 
of the college, December 18, 1860, and all through the depress- 
ing period of the civil war. " In a time of difficulty he labored 
for the growth of the institution," according to the testimony 
borne to his services to the college by the Alumni of Trinity 
at their meeting in 1899. His inaugural address a- President 
was mainly devoted to insisting upon the supreme importance 
of the religious side of the work of the college. 

In August, 1862, he delivered a striking address before the 
American Institute of Instruction, at Hartford, upon "Con- 
servatism in Education." 

He resigned the presidency June 29, 1864, but retained his 
connection with the college as Lecturer on Constitutional 
Law and Political Science for ten years longer. In the 
mean time he had declined an election to a professorship in 
History in Columbia College, which had conferred upon him, 
in 1863, the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. Dr. Eliot's 
career as a teacher at Hartford was an eminently successful 
one, and numbers of his pupils have borne abundant testimony 

to the gratitude and affection his Stimulating counsels aial his 
genial disposition inspired, 



At about this period the American Social Science Associa- 
tion was founded, and Dr. Eliot was chosen Corresponding 
Secretary. At the third general meeting in Xew Haven. Oc- 
tober, 1866, he delivered the annual address, as also the next 
year, in Boston. This last was repeated the following year. 
in New York, printed and widely distributed. In it he re- 
views at considerable length the work that was going on in 
the Old World in the field of the society's labors, and outlines 
the work that ought to be undertaken in this country. This 
he distributes under the three heads of protection, such as the 
building of model lodging-houses and working-women's homes ; 
of direction, in helping on the social elevation of the laboring 
classes; and of expansion, by opening up new opportunities 
for woman. The old prejudice that her place is in the family 
alone, he strenuously combats, and advocates her right to a 
higher education, and to a larger interest in human affairs, 
broadly claiming that she ought to be " endowed with the civil 
privileges which she seeks to obtain." This position he con- 
stantly maintained, being all his life a strong advocate of 
woman suffrage, always ready to head petitions or to go before 
legislative committees in its behalf. From 1868 to 1872 he 
was President of the Association, and took a leading part in 
preparing and issuing in successive editions a hand-book on 
" Free Public Libraries : suggestions on their foundation and 
administration ; with a selected list of books." This was un- 
dertaken in response to a suggestion of Justin Winsor, at that 
time Superintendent of the Boston Public Library, in his 
annual report for 1869, that such a work was needed. "The 
Journal of Social Science " was established in that same year, 
to contain the Transactions of the Association and cognate 
matter, and to the first number Dr. Eliot contributed a no- 
table artiele in support of Mr. Jenckes' bill " To regulate the 
Civil Serviee of the United States." In the fourth number 
(1871) he discussed the question of " The Relief of Labor," 
and strongly criticised the aggressiveness of the Trades' 
Unions, while cordially approving schemes of Co-operation, 
Arbitration, and Industrial Partnership. He returned to the 
same theme in the 4i American Church Review " (January, 
1872), laying the chief stress upon the duty of the Church to 
influence the labor movement, not by new organizations, 
doctrines, or instruction, or as the special business of the 



8 

clergy, but emphatically as the work of the laity. If the laity 
should enter heartily into the wants of the laboring i 
directing them in their perplexities and inspiring them in their 
exertions, they could gradually be led back under the influ- 
ences of the religious teaching from which they had Btrayed. 

After resigning his position at Hartford, I>r. Eliot resumed 
his ^residence in Boston, in 18G">. and the following year he 
was elected an Overseer of Harvard College, one of the first 
list chosen by the graduates under the present constitution of 
the Board. This office he held until 1872; and as chairman 
of the committee appointed by the Board to visit the College, 
he presented an elaborate report upon the condition of the 
instruction in the various departments, with suggestions of 
needed improvements. From 1870 to 1873 he filled the posi- 
tion of Lecturer on History, and in 1878 and 1S7'. 1 be was 
President of the Association of Alumni. In 1880 he re< 
from his Alma Mater the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. 
To the first volume of the "Harvard Memorial Biographies" 
he contributed a memoir of Montgomery Ritchie, and an his- 
torical sketch of the older college buildings to the Harvard 
Book. 

In 1868 Dr. Eliot was selected to deliver the oration before 
the city authorities of Boston on the Fourth of July. His 
theme was a broad survey of " The Functions of a City," con- 
sidered under the respective heads of its political, educational, 
charitable, and religious duties. 

A part of 1869 and 1870 was spent by him in Europe, 
and much time was given to the study of social questions. 
In 1872 he was appointed Head Master of the Girls' High 
and Normal School in Boston, which position he continued to 
hold for four years. That a man born and nurtured in the 
selectest circles of his native city, blest with a competence, 
who had been the president of a college, should be willing to 
assume the humbler duties of master of a public school for 
girls, proved the genuine independence of his character. Pox 
him "small service is true service, while it lasts." In the 
comparatively short time in which he was in charge he made 
an impression on the school which lias never been eflaeed. 
To quote the words of Dr. Tetlow. M he strengthened the intel- 
lectual life of the school, and that of itself was an important 
service, but it was not Dr. Eliot's greatest service. Besides 



9 

that, and incomparably more valuable than that, was the life of 
the spirit which he brought into the school. Every newcomer, 
whether pupil or teacher, who has stayed long enough in the 
school to understand and to enter into its inner life, has felt, 
consciously or unconsciously, the subtle influence of the life 
of the spirit to which I have referred, and knows what I mean 
by it." 

In after years he continued to visit the school upon the an- 
niversary of his appointment, and addressed its members in 
affectionate and inspiring terms, and at its closing exercises, 
each year, he spoke words of cheer and congratulation to the 
graduating class. He gladly responded to requests from the 
teachers of history, on reaching the end of an historic period, 
to address the class on the events which had been the subject 
of study, and brought his wealth of knowledge and experience 
to illustrate the relations of the period to the general progress 
of civilization. His interest in the successive classes never 
ceased, and it was reciprocated by a devoted and life-long 
affection on the part of the pupils. 

When, in 1877, a state of friction had arisen between the 
late John D. Philbrick, at that time Superintendent of the 
Boston Schools (who had held that office for twenty years), 
and the Board of Supervisors, attention was naturally directed 
to Dr. Eliot as the best man to harmonize the conflicting ele- 
ments, and on January 22, 1878, he was elected to that im- 
portant position. 

His first semi-annual report (September, 1878) was a reve- 
lation to the citizens of Boston. Evidently an original and 
revolutionary force had begun to work in the public school 
system, bringing with it new impulse and fresh life. It was 
welcomed with a chorus of approval from leading educators, 
including President Eliot, of Harvard. 

Seeking to learn " what are some of the causes which im- 
pede the action of our system and some of the means by which 
they may be removed," insisting upon the truism that " our 
schools are for our pupils, not our pupils for our schools," he 
proceeds to lay down the main lines upon which the reform 
should proceed. Children are to be treated as children, not as 
machines or as drudges, but with regard fur the weakness as 
well as the strength of child nature. Real education aims 
straight at the will. It is not so much what they are learning 



Ill 

as how tliey are learning, or how much they want to learn, 
which proves their training. The best points for training Are 

motives; zeal for .study is the great object to attain. For the 
teacher he proposed freedom from the bondage of text-booka, 
and the employment of oral teaching in their place. The 

mere school-book is nothing more to the teacher <>r the pupQ 
than a walking-stick. It is the direct action of mind upon 
mind which makes good teaching. In the schools of German] 
no book is to be seen in the teacher's hands. When we con- 
sider that most text-books owe their existence to commercial 
rather than to educational considerations, they certainly lie- 
open to criticism. No more spelling-book lessons, then 
they block the way they profess to open ; children are t<> learn 
to spell partly from the books they use, partly from oral and 
written exercises. "When we study a foreign language," he 
says, "we do not get a spelling-book to help as." Instead of 
the common type of reading-books, mere fragments of writing. 
he proposed to use "some writing however brief, a Btory, or a 
history, a book of travels, or a poem, associated as vividly as 
possible with the author who wrote them." Grammar would 
almost develop itself from such reading. As children grew 
older, they would be helped by a general treatise upon gram- 
mar, provided they were kept from committing any of it to 
memory. No text-book in history ought to be employed : only 
there should be reading of books of history. 

Education should avoid the danger of doing too little by 
trying to do too much; the multitude of subjects taught tends 
to superficiality. There are too many simultaneous studies. 
Cramming is not educating. "If education." he Bays, "is 
drawing out, cramming is drawing in. Cramming cans noth- 
ing for teacher or scholar, but only for the school." There 
are subjects taken up, it would almost seem, only to be laid 
down. If some of the studies of our higher schools were 
dropped, it would be a gain rather than a loss. 

There are too many examinations; for the pupils they con- 
sume a good deal of time and strength that might be better 
employed, and heap up difficulties that need never be encoun- 
tered; and for the examiners the preparation and correction 
of examination papers absorb a large amount of time that 
might be better occupied. Subjects rather than separate facta 
should be its staple. While it is wise to teat instinct inn, it is 



11 

unwise to make as much of testing as of instructing. Ex- 
amination has two distinct functions, — one disciplinary, com- 
pelling attention and perseverance throughout a course of 
study ; the other educational, and its object is missed if it 
does not inspire the pupil with the desire of continuing the 
study he has begun. 

Promotions should be rapid for each scholar. " There is 
something absolutely wrong," he says, " in shutting up a 
pupil within the pages of a book, or the limits of an exercise, 
long after his work is done, merely because the work of his 
fellow pupils is not done." 

Industrial education ought not to be introduced into the 
grammar schools ; were it tried in the way usually recom- 
mended, it would not only fail to remove difficulties, but add 
to them ; it would increase the pressure already too great, or 
multiply the shortcomings already too numerous, in the studies 
now taught. It needs its own schools, parallel with but in- 
dependent of the high schools. But we are not bound to 
admit that the city should provide it. " There is no greater 
mistake in education," he says, " than in clamoring for the 
State to do what can be better done by individuals." Industrial 
education needs specialists to found it and to build it, and is 
of just that character that will flourish better on private than 
on public soil. 

The s} T stematic supplying of free text-books and stationery 
indiscriminately involves an. outlay which is indefensible, and 
it ought to be discouraged. What the citizen can provide for 
himself or his family ought to be left to his providing, for his 
sake and for theirs. It is plain to see that the pouring out 
of school materials at the pupil's feet is no way to train him 
in thrift or foresight. " Would we check," he says, " the 
wasteful habits by which we are sometimes characterized 
nationally, here is an opportunity." Where help is needed to 
procure such materials, as in the case of necessary clothing or 
food, it should be left to institutions or to individual benevo- 
lence to supply it. "It is best," he says, "for every child 
and for every parent, that education should cost something, 
and frugality and self-denial should be as necessary to obtain 
it as to get food, or clothing, or shelter." 

He pleads for economy and a wise expenditure, but not 
by retrenchment of the teachers' salaries, — that would be not 



12 

economy, but wastefulness, — bat by a greater discrimination 

in the objects of expenditure, less for show and for OOStlj 
buildings. 

Primary teachers should be chosen from the very beat can- 
didates who offer themselves, — the beat in culture, th< 
in skill. It would be an improvement to have a few men of 
character and education employed exclusively in primary in- 
struction ; and he accordingly recommends the establishment 
of a system of Vice-Principals over particular districts, with 
the immediate supervision and instruction of the primacy 
classes. 

Finally, insisting that it is in the public schools that the 
great body of the nation is to receive its moral as well a- its 
intellectual training, that moral training is at the heart 
training, that schools can never be wholly secular, he asks why 
the reading of the Bible cannot be restored, and the L 
Prayer again be repeated, as it used to be, and the opening 
of the morning service become once more devotional. 

Such are the main points dwelt upon in this epoch-marking 
report; audit is only truth to say that the general public, as 
represented by the press, even in distant cities, joined with 
the educational experts in expressions of approbation of its 
temper and spirit. 

His second report (March, 1879) was devoted 
criticism of particular points in the school system, beginning 
with the primary schools. It abounds with wise suggestions 
and hints for improvement. The authority of Ruakin is quoted 
as suppling a summary of primary instruction, — the forma- 
tion of good motives and good habits, the cultivation of the 
senses, the acquisition of thought and expression, and the 
simple learning which suits the simple learner. Dr. Eliot in- 
sists that the great thing to do for our primary pupils 
keep them as fresh and impressionable as when they came to 
us. He warns us that we are too ready to train them, aa we 
call it, but perhaps it should be more truly called to subdue 
them. "To turn them into stone by any Gorgon's head, which 
we call discipline, is a terrible mistake." Pointing out that it 
is a part of every child's experience to learn things before 
names, to learn things singly and whole things rather than 
parts, he shows that we have not i 
with children as would be beat " Text-books," he 



13 

" have seized upon the little child, like the ogres of old, and 
devoured his thoughts." If we would help them to learn to 
read, as they have learned other things before the} 7 came to 
us, it should not be by plunging into books, but by calling 
up their thoughts one after another, and finding expression for 
them in successive words, resting content until the words can 
be put together as thoughts combine themselves, and sentences 
naturally follow. 

So too while learning to read they should not be compelled 
to learn at the same time spelling and articulation. " To 
make him spell," he says, " all the time he is reading, is like 
tripping him up when we would have him walk." At the 
outset spelling is to be practised only as a help to reading, 
and by and by it will take its place as a help to writing ; but 
it should never have the lion's share it has long claimed in our 
teaching. Most of the defects attributed to primary instruc- 
tion arise from mistaking its object. Instead of being con- 
tented with the initiative, we strike into the very substance of 
education, and demand effects belonging to a later stage. 

The number of pupils assigned to teachers of the lowest 
class ought to be diminished, owing to the multiplicity of mat- 
ters that most of the children need to be taught, their moral 
necessities far exceeding their intellectual. The custom of 
teachers changing their pupils in mass each half-} T ear is criti- 
cised ; individual promotions may be made, but each child 
should usually have the same teacher for an entire year. 

In this report he renews his objections to the system of furnish- 
ing free text-books and stationery, both on grounds of econoim r , 
because not more than one-fourth of the parents, at most, are 
too poor to provide themselves, but mainly on account of the 
injurious moral effect, helping the people to be helpless. 
" What the founders of the republic," he says, " never thought 
of asking from the government they founded, their successors 
demand from what they have simply' inherited, and the readi- 
ness to assent to these demands appears to grow as they grow. 
It is time to stem the tide ; and the place where it can be 
stemmed most easily and most effectually is the public school. 
If we would have self-help in the nation, we must have it in the 
children." 

The most interesting topic, however, discussed in this report 
is the subject of corporal punishment in the schools. He asks 



14 

whether this punishment is subject to adequate restriction, 

whether it is necessary, and whether it is efficacious, and an- 
swers all these questions in the negative. II' 1 shows thai there 
is nothing to prevent hasty or even passionate infliction of the 
punishment, and insists that there should be an interval be- 
tween the offence and the chastisement at least as long as thai 
between two sessions. As for its necessity, he says, " vei v 
few teachers like it; most women dislike it extremely : most 
men dislike it a good deal." They may think themselves 
driven to it, but there is a sense of disappointment, often of 
mortification, that their power over their scholars is not enough 
to dispense with it. It is now very generally considered 
resort to which the mature teacher cannot turn at least fre- 
quently or habitually, without confessing some degree of in- 
tellectual or moral weakness in himself. As proof that it is 
not necessary, he cites the experience of Rev. Mr. Wells at the 
House of Reformation for Juvenile Offenders. " lie collected 
the boys — vagrants and criminals, be it remembered — and told 
them that their past should be no hindrance to their future, 
that they should have a fresh start, and if they did well they 
should be treated well. As a proof of meaning what he said. 
he took a long whip that had been used in punishing them, 
and burned it before their eyes. He retained the ferule, but 
some time later he called them around him. and asked them if 
they would promise him to behave themselves if that too 
were destroyed. Yes, they would ; and so he put himeslf 
at their head, and marched to the stove, and gave the ferule 
to the flames." He always said that he never regretted the 
abolition of corporal punishment. 

In the third report (September, 1870) he shows plainly 
that the new influence had begun to pervade the whole school 
system. A complete revision had taken place of almost every 
point in organization, administration, and instruction. This 
had failed to diminish expenditure, but it had met with 
decided success in quickening the concern for public educa- 
tion. One of its most important results had been the pro- 
posed change in the tenure of office for the teachers from one 
year to three. This, however, was far from satisfying the 
wish of the superintendent, which was for a tenure for I 

behavior. In support of his opinion he points out the c\il 
effect upon the teacher from the anxiety necessarily incident 



15 

upon his securing reappointments, and he shows that it 
hinders the best teachers from seeking positions in our public 
schools. 

The question of the annual school exhibitions is considered, 
and many of their customary features are questioned, espe- 
cially the march of the school regiment through the streets, 
and the prize drill, and the suggestion is made that the annual 
Festival in the Music Hall might be advantageously modified. 

But of much greater moment does he regard the internal 
burdens from which our schools are apt to suffer. "All the 
paraphernalia," he says, " of rewards and punishments, marks, 
percentages, extras, merits, checks, and the rest, are among 
the chief hindrances to moral and intellectual life. They drag 
the nature down to lower impulses, and compel it to be con- 
tent with lower duties." 

Considering the relations of the schools to the city, he sa} T s 
that of the views of public education as a burden, a necessity, 
or an honor, one of the three the city or its citizens must 
take. " Regard them as a burden, and they will receive more 
and give less proportionately ; as a necessity, and they will 
give more, but not as much as they might ; as an honor, and 
they will give all they can, were it for no other reason than a 
wish to hold their place in public opinion." 

A practical question of great moment is thus touched 
upon : " A few years s'nce an inquiry among the pupils of 
one of our High Schools brought out the fact that many of the 
children came without breakfast or anything for luncheon, 
though they were not dismissed until two o'clock. Many 
had no proper clothes, and were the helpless victims of 
every cold corner or wet crossing which lay in their way." 
In view of this state of things, he insists that if children are 
to be taught in school, they must be taught in what condition 
to come, and if the home does not feed and clothe them as 
they need, it must be helped by counsel or warning from the 
school. The school is a failure, whatever it may have taught 
the children from books or lips, if it has not taught them how 
to live ; if they have not learned from it lessons of good man- 
ners, pure tastes, and high purposes. One means of giving 
them this instruction is by a supervision of the reading of 
children out of school, and exciting in them the love of good 
reading. This is the more necessary as the kind of reading 



16 

supplied them by the cheap newspapers is of the i 
tional character, and most deleterious in its effects. Thii 
can readily be met and prevented by the supplementary read- 
ing furnished by the schools. He thanks Mr. Henry Cabot 
Lodge for having edited for them a selection .it' Fairy Tales, and 
says, " Children who have never so much as beard of Jack the 
Giant-Killer or Cinderella will read about them, dream about 
them, and be more like children. A few Titles from the 
Arabian Nights and a volume of children's poetry are pre- 
pared and will soon be printed." 

"Of all the responsibilities of a superintendent of schools," 
he says, "none seems more binding than that concerning 
children not at school or not attending regularly." In this 
connection he states that the community tolerates the employ- 
ment of school children not merely in ordinary industry, but 
in all sorts of extraordinary enterprises, such as hiring boys 
and even girls to stand in line for hours before dawn to pre- 
sent applications by their employers for United States Ten 
Dollar Certificates at the Post-Office ; or the advertisement by 
theatrical managers for one hundred and titty children for a 
juvenile performance of " Pinafore." - Then- should be but 
one opinion," he says, " and that strong enough to leave the 
theatre empty when the performers are school children." 

Dr. Eliot's fourth report (.March, 1880) begins with a state- 
ment of the working of the various changes proposed by him, 
in so far as they had been accepted and carried out by the 
School Committee. This in the main he finds to be Batisfac- 
tory. One marked exception, however, is noted : " teach 
both sexes use personal violence with their pupils in such 
forms and such frequency that the facts, if published, would 
cause unpleasantness . . . tin; monthly reports of BOme 
Grammar .Schools come ringing with the echoes of I 
one hundred and thirty corporal punishments in one Bchool, 
one hundred and fifty-seven in another, each for a month, and 
a month averaging twenty-one and a half days of five hours. 

' Brethren,' as St. James wrote, * these things ought no: 

be.'" 

The objections to the annual prize drill of the school 
ment, and the march through the Btreets, arc repeated, and 

the suggestion is made that too much time is taken up by the 

drills all through the year at the expense of what i> needed 



IT 

for real school work. The remedy would be found in having 
the drilling restricted to Saturdays. Another reform urged is 
the appointment of a Medical Inspector for the schools, in the 
hope of thereby securing a proper supply of fresh air in the 
buildings and the improvement of their sanitary arrangements. 

Renewed attention is directed to " the epidemic of juvenile 
theatrical performances that has broken out among us lately/' 
and instances are cited of its injurious or demoralizing effects 
upon children. Thanks are awarded to Colonel Henry S. 
Russell, Chairman of the Board of Police Commissioners, for 
his assistance in defence against several recent dramatic raids 
upon the schools. As the provisions of the law concerning 
public exhibitions of children have been found to be insuffi- 
cient, efforts are making to have a law passed " to prohibit the 
employment of children from the public schools, or others who 
may be liable to harm, in any capacity at the theatres." 

The remainder of this report is occupied with impressing 
and illustrating various subjects that had been brought for- 
ward in previous reports. The benefits to the children from 
reading the best literature in its effect upon their use of lan- 
guage, where the habit of the average home is an unsafe guide, 
and the method pursued for teaching language, are set forth 
in ample detail ; special praise is awarded to attempts to have 
children make clear statements in their own words, and out of 
their own thoughts, by abstracts, narratives, or letters de- 
scribing some simple experience. The good results of furnish- 
ing supplementary reading to supply the craving of children 
for variety is dwelt upon, and the assistance rendered by the 
Public Library in preparing " lists of books for the use of 
pupils in the public schools," and in providing a supply of 
twenty-five copies of the same work to be sent to single 
schools for home reading, is gratefully acknowledged. For 
this last novel idea the credit rightfully belongs to our asso- 
ciate, Judge Chamberlain, at that time Librarian. 

Wise cautions are offered as to the right method of teach- 
ing literature ; " we are not to study a book as if it were a 
stone to be weighed, measured, and otherwise examined on the 
outside." Neither is a great work to be examined on the in- 
side with reference merely to details. " Some editions of the 
English classics," he says, " lately prepared for the use of 
schools, have as much note as text, and the scholar who goes 



18 

through them reads their editors rather than their writers. 
Especially is this true of the poets. I sat a long time in a 
room one day while a class was getting through a single 
stanza. It was so slow because of the interruptions of the 
teacher, whose instruction was intended to be very thorough, 
and who succeeded in being very dry, as were the pupils also." 
Of all language lessons, none are so good as those in litera- 
ture. Communion with it, or with the minds that have mail*; 
it, is the " air of delightful studies," which none can breathe 
without some fresh power both of thought and expression. 
But it must be real communion. " Just a chapter or two of 
one writer, or a poem or two of another, with rapid transi- 
tion from author to author and from age to age, will leave 
most pupils confused rather than inspired." 

The report closes with the expression of a fear that ill- 
health, then of some months' continuance, may compel him in 
future to make fewer visits to the school, and he accordingly 
asks the teachers to visit him, " not merely when they are in 
trouble, but at all times convenient to them, so that we may 
share one another's interests. Let them also send their pupils 
to me, whenever such counsel or such help as I can give may 
seem to be of service. The closer we can all draw together, 
the deeper the sympathy among us, the fuller will be the per- 
formance of our various duties." 

These fears were only too well grounded, although the 
school board hastened to grant him leave of absence for any 
length of time that might be required to restore his health 
and strength. He went abroad for entire change and resl : 
but before the opening of the school year, in September, he 
felt compelled to write home that he must resign his office. 

In their next annual report (January, 1881) the School 
Committee showed a sincere appreciation of the loss they had 
suffered. They say, "During his too short term he had tilled 
the position of superintendent with honor and distinction t<> 
himself, and to the great benefit of the schools. In the pro- 
gressive changes which he instituted and put in shape for 
fulfilment, he has left behind him a monument that will live 
forever in the schools of Boston." 

Generally acceptable as Dr. Eliot's suggestions had proved, 
it must not be supposed that some of them did not meet 
strenuous opposition, not only in the school board, but in 



19 

the community. Naturally the question of the employment 
of school children upon the stage of the theatre attracted a 
good deal of attention, and much controversy ensued in the 
public press upon the subject. The manager wh*o had first 
introduced this kind of attraction stoutly defended his action, 
claiming that every precaution had been taken to safeguard 
the children's health and morals, and that in many cases the 
money thus earned had been of the greatest assistance to the 
parents. A license had been first secured from the Police 
Commissioners, although there had been no public hearing 
upon the request for it ; and they declined to revoke it upon 
the solicitation of the School Committee. The Society for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Children also declined to interfere 
in the matter, under the advice of their counsel that such 
performances were not prohibited by law. In a subsequent 
case, however, upon application made by the Superintendent 
of Schools, the Police Commissioners refused to grant a similar 
license, and public opinion sustained them in so doing. 

In the effort to improve the reading matter used in the 
schools, Dr. Eliot, in 1879, compiled " Selections from Amer- 
ican authors : Franklin, Adams, Cooper, and Longfellow." 
The volume was published in Xew York, and is made up of 
continuous passages from the Autobiography of Franklin, a 
number of the Letters of John and Abigail Adams, Cooper's 
Spy, and Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn. It was im- 
mediately adopted as a supplementary reader in the Boston 
schools. At the same time Dr. Eliot made a selection of 
" Poetry for Children,"' containing a great variety, ranging 
from simple old rhymes, loved of children, to stories and 
ballads in verse, chosen from the best authors, brimming 
over with fancy, humor, and patriotism. This book also 
was immediately put in use. Dr. Eliot at the same time 
made a selection of " Six Stories from the Arabian Nights'" : 
"The Fisherman,'* "The Three Sisters," "Prince Ahmed," 
" Aladdin or the Wonderful Lamp." " Ali Baba and the 
Forty Thieves,"' and " Sinbad the Sailor." Mr. Henry Cabot 
Lodge also selected " Six Popular Tales *' : " Jack the Giant- 
Killer," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Little Red Riding- 
Hood," ;i Puss in Boots," " The Sleeping Beauty," and 
" Cinderella." But when these books also were adopted for 
school reading, certain voices were at once raised in condem- 



2d 

nation: one remonstrant styled them "trash" and "worthless 
literary rubbish"; another was "surprised and shocked at the 
kind of literature furnished by the Bchool committee for sup- 
plementary reading," even finding his modesty offended ;it 

their contents. Moreover an outcry was raised because the 
school board had authorized the sale of these books, specially 
prepared at their expense for use in the Boston schools, out- 
side of the city. It was asked whether the city had gone 
into the publishing business in competition with the regular 
trade. The facts were that the committee had given its agent 
authority to use the stereotype plates and the copyright at a 
stipulated rent, he assuming all the labor and risk of disposing 
of the books. In this way all the cost to the city would lit- 
re paid. 

Notwithstanding such criticism the new departure in sup- 
plying reading matter to the schools was welcomed with 
almost universal approbation by teachers and parents, while 
the pupils showed by their every look and act that the hour 
for reading had become the most delightful one of the day. 
Through these gay and joyous selections the children of pov- 
erty and hardship gained a glimpse of brightness and happi- 
ness that helped light up the coarse surroundings of their 
daily life at home. 

Dr. Eliot returned to his home with restored health, and 
resumed the various services in the way of charitable, phil- 
anthropic, and religious work, that had always engrossed so 
large an amount of his time. 

In 1885 he was himself elected to the School Committee, 
which for three } r ears had the benefit of his valuable experi- 
ence. During this time, among his many services, he acted 
as Chairman of the Horace Mann School for the Peal'. 

After leaving the board Dr. Eliot always took the liveli- 
est interest in everything pertaining to the public schools 
and their management : and during the last few years oi his 
life he was the centre of a movement for the improvement of 
the whole system through a change in the administration, and 
by breathing into it higher aspirations. At the present mo- 
ment he is greatly missed, when a determined effort is making 
to bring about needed improvements, as he was ever ready 
and willing to take the lead in advocating necessary changes 

before committees of the legislature, who always listened to 



21 

him with the respect which his character, his attainments, 
and especially his experience commanded. 

In his religious life Dr. Eliot was a faithful and devoted 
member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, sparing neither 
time nor toil in his efforts to promote her welfare. Natural^ 
his interest in all educational work undertaken by her was 
very keen. In 1858 he was elected a Trustee of St. Paul's 
School, at Concord, New Hampshire, when it had just com- 
pleted its second year, and he continued to serve in that 
capacity for forty years. He used to make two visits to the 
school every year, and he helped to raise the money for its 
enlargement, taking chief charge in carrying it out. He was 
called upon to make many addresses on important occasions 
in the school's history, — on laying the corner-stone of the 
new chapel, September, 1886 ; on its completion and conse- 
cration, June, 1888 ; and on the memorial exercises upon the 
death of its founder, Dr. Shattuck. As representing St. 
Paul's School, he made an address at the consecration of the 
chapel, and dedication of the new building of St. Mark's 
School at Southborough, Massachusetts. 

Not less zealous was his interest in the philanthropic work 
of his church. The Episcopal City Mission, established in 
1848 by a generous gift of Hon. William Appleton, early 
occupied his attention, and became one of the special objects 
of his concern . He gave that care to the details of the man- 
agement of St. Stephen's Chapel, which its founder. Mr. 
Appleton, was unable to render. In January, 1888, he de- 
livered an address commemorative of the founder, and of 
the missionary, Rev. E. M. P. Wells: and he paid a renewed 
tribute to the memory of Mr. Wells in " The Diocese," April, 
1893. One of the last pieces of work done by him was a 
similar service to the memory of Mr. Appleton in " The 
Church Militant," October, 1898. At the time of his death 
he was President of the Mission. 

He was frequently called upon to deliver addresses before 
various church organizations. In October, 1866, he made 
one on '* The Education of Divinity Students " before the 
Seventh Church Congress, at Providence, Rhode Island ; and 
in the same year one before the venerable Boston Episcopal 
Charitable Society, founded nearly a century and a half 
before ; he addressed this Societv ao:ain in 1887, and was its 



President at the time of his death. On the Centennial of 
Washington's inauguration, April oO, 1889, be delivered an 

address before the Episcopalian Club of Boston. 

In 1889 he was one of the representatives of the Dioc< 
Massachusetts in the General Convention of the Protestant 

Episcopal Church, and was re-elected in 1892, but was pre- 
vented by illness from taking his scat, lit: served on the 
Commission for Revising the Hook of Common Prayer, which 
reported finally at Baltimore in 1892. 

After the death of Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, in 1895, he 
became the President of the Massachusetts Bible Society. 

Not for his church only, but for every kind of charitable 
and humanitarian work, was our friend faithful and laborious, 

For thirty-two years he was a Trustee of the Massachusetts 
General Hospital, and Chairman of the Hoard for the Last 
twenty-four years. In their resolutions upon the occasion 
of his death, the Board say, " No little of the successful devel- 
opment and enlargement of the work of the institutions under 
our charge has been due to his watchful oversight and ever 
zealous care for their best interests." A beautiful tribute to 
his memory was the gift from a lady of a large sum of money 
as the nucleus of a fund for the building and maintenance of 
a chapel on the grounds of the McLean Hospital to be known 
as " The Samuel Eliot Memorial Chapel." 

In his early youth he became interested in the education 
of the blind, and for thirty-five )'ears lie served as a Trustee 
of the Perkins Institution for the Blind, the last twenty-six of 
which and until his death he was its President. To the" New 
England Magazine" (February, 1897) he contributed an in- 
teresting illustrated sketch of the history of the institution, 
"The Samuel Eliot Cottage" upon the grounds at South 
Boston will always keep his memory green there. 

For twenty-one years Dr. Eliot was one of the Trust i 
the Massachusetts School for Feeble-minded Youth, and from 
the death of Dr. S. G. Howe, in 187»i, till his own death, he 
was President of the Hoard. 

The Boston Asylum and Faun School for Boys, at Thomp- 
son's Island, was one of the institutions in which he took a 
special interest, and the report of the managers for 1876 was 
prepared by him. 

Nor were his services limited to works of benevolence only, 



23 

every effort calculated to promote the literary and artistic 
development of our community was cherished by him. From 
its foundation, iu 1870, he was a Trustee of the Boston Museum 
of Fine Arts and a member of the Executive Committee until 
his death. For many years he was President of the Boston 
Athenseum. 

In 1865 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy 
of Arts and Sciences. 

Dr. Eliot was elected a member of this Society March 10, 1853, 
but his membership terminated by his removal from the State, 
June 24, 1856. On October 9, of the same year, he was elected 
a Corresponding Member, and on his return to the State he was 
re-elected, April 20, 1865. But for this break in his member- 
ship he would have been our Senior Member at the time of his 
death. He contributed to our Proceedings Memoirs of Charles 
C. Perkins and of Martin Brimmer ; to the course of lectures 
before the Lowell Institute by members of the Massachusetts 
Historical Society, a lecture upon " Early Relations with the 
Indians." 

For many years Dr. Eliot was a member and vestryman of 
Trinity Church, ever constant in his attendance and zealous 
in her behalf. As the intimate and cherished friend of the 
rector, Phillips Brooks, it was the most appropriate choice that 
selected him to deliver the Eulogy upon Bishop Brooks, on 
behalf of the City of Boston, April 11, 1893. This was written 
with all the fervor of devoted friendship and admiration, and 
as a discriminating and appreciative tribute to the great preacher 
was worthy of its subject. Unfortunately he was prevented by 
illness from delivering it in person, but it was read for him by 
his friend, our associate Colonel Charles R. Codman, to the 
highest satisfaction of the great audience. 

Dr. Eliot died at Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, on Sep- 
tember 14, 1898, leaving his widow and a daughter, Mrs. John 
H. Morrison, with her two sons, surviving him. His own two 
sons had died before, — one, the younger, in childhood, the 
elder at the age of twenty. 

As I dwell upon his character, I feel strongly what a true 
democrat he was, ever ready to stand up for the rights of the 
poor and the weak against every assertion of power and privi- 
lege. How much his sagacious and righteous counsels are 
missed at the present crisis in our country's destiny ! 



24 

Though eminently courteous and conciliatory in bis lan- 
guage, he gave me the impression of a fiery nature sternly 
repressed by the severest discipline. The writer well remem- 
bers how gallantly he used to stand against the assaults of 
blind prejudice and unjust criticism in his attempted reform of 
the public school system ; and it will always be a satisfaction to 
him that it was in his power, as a member of the School Com- 
mittee, to help support the efforts of the new Superintendent) 

As an impromptu speaker Dr. Eliot was very effective. His 
language was simple and refined ; his reasoning clear and logi- 
cal; and his style lightened by a play of humor and an alum- 
dance of entertaining anecdote. His action was graceful and 
dignified, set off by a winning charm of manner, the whole 
heightened by a voice remarkably cultivated and melodious. 
In his more formal addresses there was added to all th< 
cellences a wealth of literary and historical allusion, and of 
the most appropriate poetical quotation, displaying the ripened 
fruit of the highest culture. 

Respected, admired, beloved, that life which was ever u one 
perpetual growth of Heavenward enterprise'' has passed to its 
well-earned reward. 



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